THE CASTAWAYS (Elin Hilderbrand)

First of all, I didn't finish this book.  I usually like Hilderbrand's style and characters and I love that she sets her books on Nantucket, despite that fact that I have never been there (I did spend a lot of time in Manomet, MA and on Cape Cod as a child, though).  The Castaways, however, is depressing and I just had to stop reading.

The Castaways are a group of 4 couples who live year-round on the island and vacation together: Police Chief Ed and his wife Andrea; farmer Jeffrey and his wife Delilah, who helps to manage a restaurant/club, the Blue Begonia; real estate mogul Addison and his wife Phoebe, a beautiful, fragile woman who is dependent on prescription drugs; and Greg, who sings at the Blue Begonia and Tess, who is Andrea's younger cousin.  At the beginning of the novel we hear that Tess and Greg have drowned in a boating accident on thier 12th wedding anniversary, leaving 7 year-old-twins, Chloe and Finn, behind.  This drowning sets off a series of reactions in each of the characters.  Andrea, who used to live with Jeffrey and almost married him before she met Ed, slips into depression, feeling that she is responsible for Tess's death since she failed to join the convent as she promised in a pact with God years ago when she saved Tess from drowning.  Delilah, who was on the verge of an affair with Greg, is disturbed about his supposed daliance with a provocative high school girl who claims to have been with him the night before he drowned.  Addison was having a love affair with Tess and is the executor of Tess and Greg's estate.  He uses this role as a means of combing their home for clues about Tess's real feelings for him.  Phoebe, Addison's wife, has been in a depression since her twin brother, Reed, died in 9/11, but somehow Tess and Greg's deaths cause her to finally break free of her grief just as Addison is descending into his own private Hell.

Hilderbrand's writing style is enjoyable and the characters here are reasonably well-developed, but there is just too much depression, grief, and angst.  There are nuances that there may be something suspicious about Tess and Greg's deaths, but no real hint of any sort of foul play.  I admit that I do kind of wonder what really happened, and for this reason I wouldn't discount the novel or suggest that you not read it.  If you choose to try this one, though, be prepared to feel agitated and sad.